Page 23 of Renegade

Raven nodded before looking over at me. “What other questions do you have?”

I dragged my gaze away from him and looked across the desk. “Could you give me the specifications of the safe in the closet so I can take a look at the model? It might help to determine how easy it would be for a thief to bypass the fingerprint keypad.”

He chuckled. “Sure, I’ll give it to you, but I will say, it’s the top-of-the-line vault for personal valuables available on the market.”

A top-of-the-line vault which I’d no doubt broken into before.

“Of that I have no doubt,” Raven said with a smile. “Oh, I forgot to ask. Who monitors the cameras?”

“HoSecMo.”

I frowned. “Who’s that?”

He grinned. “HoSecMo stands for Home Security Monitoring. I own the patent on it,” he said, puffing up his chest. “HoSecMo is a program I wrote myself.”

“I see,” I said. “It’s a computer monitoring system then…not manned by live human beings, like you did today at the front gate?”

“Well, I happened to be working at my desk when you drove up, so I answered. Mr. Aston called prior to your arrival to tell me you’d be stopping by, so I had the house pulled up on my screen. But even if I hadn’t been watching,” he rushed to add, “HoSecMo would have called the owner or the occupant of the property to ask if I should let you through.”

“Okay,” I said.

“So, you could say that today was a one-off. Still, live monitoring is available to a client if they want it. We are a full-service security provider, though, most of the time, my residential clients are happy with a computer monitoring their system. HoSecMo was one of the things which sold Mr. Flores on my company but as I said, Mrs. Flores vetoed the very idea of being watched. She even went so far as to make me take out the old cameras.” He frowned. “Between you, me, and the lamppost, it was sort of insulting, if I have to be honest. It was like she didn’t trust me not to turn them on to do as you said…watch her in the buff.” He shrugged. “To each his own then.”

“Oh, one last question. Was that the only safe…sorry…vault in the house?” I asked.

McNulty lifted an eyebrow. “It’s the only one I installed and the only one Mr. Flores mentioned. If there’s another one, he didn’t tell me about it, though, I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s a very large house…nine bedrooms if I remember. Sometimes, ownersof these mansions want a safe or vault in every bedroom. Go figure. It keeps me busy.” He laughed.

Raven stood and I followed suit as McNulty reached for one of his business cards. He held it out with a smile. “I wouldn’t normally ask for referrals but since you’ve seen my work and you’re in the recovery business, no doubt coming into contact with people who might need my services now and then, I’d really love it if you sent business my way. I offer 20 percent in referral fees to anyone who refers me.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to point out that a safe he installed had been broken into. It was a good thing I was a nice guy. I took the card, nodding at him. “Will do, Mr. McNulty. Thanks for all your help today.”

“Yes, thank you,” Raven said. “Would it be okay for us to call you if we think of any additional questions?”

He smiled. “Absolutely.” He came around the desk and held out his hand. We took turns shaking.

“We’ll see ourselves out,” Raven said. “Thank you again, Mr. McNulty.”

“My pleasure.”

We left his office, smiling at the secretary who watched as we headed out the door. We walked to the end of the hallway to the same stairs we’d come up, but the moment we were through the door at the top of the stairs, I felt something that raised hairs on the back of my neck. I reached for Raven, stopping him in his tracks as I turned toward a dark corner of the landing.

A tall man stood in the shadows only ten feet from my right side. I sidestepped, moving almost unconsciously as I deliberately put my body between him and Raven. The man stepped forward and my eyes dropped to the gun in his hand.It was pointed at the center of my chest. My hand automatically reached for my own weapon, only realizing that I had locked it in the Ram’s glove box before going into the building.

“Nice try. It’s not there, Trigg.” He let out a low chuckle. “John told me you’d probably still have good reflexes,” the man said.

The low growl in his voice sent shivers running up my spine but it was probably the use of my nickname that made my blood run cold. I could feel Raven practically vibrating at my back and I cursed not strapping on my weapon. Aston had warned us. I inclined my head, turning it only a little to speak to Raven. I knew my reflexes were faster, if this guy attacked. “Stay where you are.” I glanced back at the man. “It seems you know me, but I don’t know you.”

The man laughed, taking a step closer until his whole face was illuminated by the dim bulb in the dark stairwell. He was older and a couple of inches shorter than me, white, about forty, with gray hair at his temples. His hair was styled even shorter than mine, in a severe military buzz cut. “My name isn’t important.” He waved the gun to the side, looking beyond my shoulder. “Come on out from behind your boyfriend, Raven,” he said, sounding amused.

Raven moved to stand beside me, and it took every ounce of strength in my body not to step between him and the man holding the gun. The very idea of him getting shot again sent dread flooding through my body.

“What do you want?” Raven asked.

“The same thing you want, Raven.”

I hated the way he said his name. “Why don’t you put the gun away and tell us,” I growled.

“Since you clearly want it spelled out, I’ll tell you. I want the ruby. It didn’t belong to Flores, and it doesn’t belong to you,” he said, offering a forced smile which looked more like a sneer to me. The look in his black eyes conveyed no humor at all. He was a killer and even though he said he knew John, I wasn’t convinced. I didn’t care how badly John blamed me for leaving him in the desert, he wouldn’t wish me dead. He’d mourned the innocents who’d been caught in the crossfire on our missions. We all had. Raven was an innocent who’d never hurt a fly in his life. And this bastard was threatening him.

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